11 



*nd subordination of parts. From this consideration we perceive 

 that science includes all the laws of the universe collectively, and 

 those of each branch separately. As the Creator has thus placed 

 all things in certain relations to each other, the true character of 

 these relations must depend on the situation of each part in re- 

 gard to the whole, as well as in regard to each particular part 

 more immediately associated with it. In our systematic^ vesti- 

 gations, we must therefore follow the true law of classification, 

 (and not an artificial arrangement,) and, accordingly, it is evident 

 that science, in its most extensive sense,is the law of the universe. 

 This is its definition. Law is a rule of action or arrangement. 

 What is the universe ? Under this term we include all that we 

 know or are capable of knowing all that we perceive or are 

 capable of perceiving, while in the present state of existence. 

 Should this world stand for millions of ages to come, the laws of 

 science once known would remain unalterably the same, and 

 that system which arranges and classifies them, if it be a true 

 one, must remain the same that it now is. It is true, man may 

 invent by applying any of those known principles to any new, 

 useful, or amusing purposes of life, thus instituting new arts, and 

 the knowledge of such a system must, in this respect, be of great 

 service to him by pointing out new arrangement in the laboratories 

 of nature which he might not have thought of without it. 



We have now explained what, to us finite beings, is the uni- 

 verse, although to beings of higher intelligence it may be but a 

 part, and to God it may be but an infinitely small part, yet to man, 

 in his present state of existence, it must ever be the whole uni- 

 verse. 



The numbers 1, 2, 3, as used in the synopsis, indicate the pri- 

 mary divisions of science, or any one of the branches or sub- 

 branches. 



The word nature is perhaps used in a different sense here 

 from what we have been accustomed to see it in other works. 

 By referring to the general synopsis, it will be found to include 

 under it all the laws of the^material world, and nothing more 



